|
New York Daily News
July 6, 2003
Pg. 26
Troops Taking It To The Limit
By Richard Sisk, Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - When asked how the troops were doing, Army Gen. William Kernan told Congress: "They're tired, sir. We are stretched."
Kernan, then head of the Joint Forces Command, made the statement in March 2002, a year before 300,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines launched the war in Iraq and 146,000 troops were left behind to win the peace.
The heavy burden on the 1.4 million-member active duty military in meeting current commitments worldwide is behind the reluctance of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to take on yet another mission by sending up to 2,000 troops to Liberia.
In March 2002, Kernan wasn't alone in telling Congress that the military was already worn out by Afghanistan.
Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, then head of the European Command, and Adm. Dennis Blair, the Pacific commander, both said they lacked "adequate forces" to carry out their missions.
The generals and admirals wanted to boost the size of the military by 50,000. Rumsfeld turned them down, and he also has rejected pleas to bring back the draft to meet the demands of an open-ended global war on terror.
Asking too much
The Navy's carrier battle groups and the heavy bomber wings of the Air Force have mostly come home from Iraq, but the 481,000 soldiers of the Army would be hard-pressed to take on more combat or deployments.
"We are at force levels which are able to carry out the missions, but we must look very prudently when we ask more of them," Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), head of the Armed Forces Committee, said after returning from Iraq last week.
In remarks aimed directly at Rumsfeld, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki said at his retirement ceremony last month, "Beware the 12-division strategy for a 10-division Army."
Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey noted that six of the Army's 10 divisions are fully or partially deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the 2nd Division is tied down permanently guarding the demilitarized zone between South Korea and North Korea. "We're in a pretty thin posture now," McCaffrey said.
"This Army is working real hard," Army Sgt. Maj. Jack Tilley, the top enlisted man, told the Daily News recently.
"People really don't know how much the Army is doing," Tilley said, referring to the 370,000 Army soldiers, both active duty and reserves, deployed to 120 locations around the world.
"The morale of the soldiers is pretty good," said Tilley, whose main job is to take the pulse of the enlisted ranks. But Tilley said of the reserves: "We're wearing 'em down here a little bit. They're getting a little tired of these deployments
"Enuff jibba jabba sucka F-14's are helluva tough like me" :Mr. T 2003
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
